


Shapeshifter

by sstwinz



Category: Shift (book), Shift - Fandom
Genre: Backstory, Gen, One Shot, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 03:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13848801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sstwinz/pseuds/sstwinz
Summary: Miranda Vaile hates herself. But when you’re nothing but a shell, what is there to even hate?Contains spoilers for the book Shift by Em Bailey!Originally written in 2015!





	Shapeshifter

**Author's Note:**

> Miranda is another fascinating character to me, so I wrote a bit of a backstory for her!

Miranda Vaile sat on the floor of her room, picking at her carpet as words ran through her head.

_ Shapeshifter. Parasite. Leech. Copycat. _

They were  _ ugly  _ words.  _ Dirty _ words, and Miranda hated them. They called to mind an image of disgusting creatures that latched onto another animal, bleeding them entirely dry before moving on to their next victim. Heartless creatures. Creatures with no feelings except for a desire to destroy other’s lives. Miranda hated them because they were also used to describe herself.

She hadn’t always been this way. When she was a child, before the accident, she’d been happy.  _ Normal. _ But it was such a tiny section of her life that she barely remembered it anymore. If she really thought hard, she could remember going on a picnic with her parents, laughing as her dad picked her up and spun her around. Her hair was full and brushed her ears, and her skin glowed. Then the memory faded back into the mist.

Being shuffled around Europe between her relatives could have made her into anyone, but it didn’t. Instead she became  _ everyone _ , melding into different forms as easily as slipping on a new outfit. Her relatives always had another excuse when they sent her away, something like “The house if too small and we don’t have enough room,” or “She might do better at a French school,”, but Miranda knew the truth. They were  _ scared  _ of her because of what she did, and instead of trying to help her they just passed her on, made her someone else’s problem. So she kept shifting, first out of spite, then out of something more. She couldn’t deny that she got a rush out of it, coming to life as the person she became was slowly destroyed. She felt  _ vibrant  _ and  _ immortal _ , and she slowly became addicted to it. She always had to find a new person, always had to get that high. She never,  _ ever  _ wanted to be trapped in a “between” period.

Miranda picked at her lank mousy hair, wanting to tear it out. Her skin looked ashy and washed out and she seemed to fade into her beige carpeting. She didn’t have a mirror in her room, but she knew how she looked. Pathetic. Just like during every between. She hated it. And that meant she hated herself. Or at least, who she was in her betweens, if that was even a person.

Her room was barren, as it always became during her betweens. The walls were plain white with no decoration. Other than the dull carpet, the only other things in the room were a chest of drawers and a small bed pushed into a corner. Just like herself, it wouldn’t gain personality until it had someone else to base it off of.

She could pretend she had been born with this, that it was something natural and she hadn’t had a choice, but Miranda knew that wasn’t true. No, this was the universe’s way of punishing her for causing her parents’ deaths years ago. “A killer, that’s all you are,” the universe was saying, “A weak, pathetic  _ killer _ . Keep going, Miranda. Maybe one day you’ll  _ actually _ be someone.”. Miranda tried to focus on the best parts of her punishment, but tonight, sitting in her empty room in her empty body, she thought about the words once more.   
_ Copycat _ because she was never original, never herself.  _ Leech _ because she latched onto people and sucked them dry.  _ Parasite _ because she was unwanted, but worked her way inside of normal people anyway. And most of all,  _ shapeshifter _ . Because that’s what she was. And that was all she would ever be.


End file.
